The end of the Year of the Phoenix is around the corner, and with it Rise of Shadows, Saviors of Uldum and Descent of Dragons will leave the Standard format to join Wild. Therefore, it is time to look back and see what we're going to leave behind in the next few days.

For this exact purpose, we present you a series of articles in which the staff of Out Of Cards will share with everyone the cards we'll miss and the ones we'll be glad to not face anymore.

This time, we're taking a look at Saviors of Uldum and what we're definitely not going to miss the most from that set - enjoy!

Aesan - Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron

Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron Card Image

No list could be complete without this grave offender. Often discovered, generated, or - to add insult to the injury - cast by Solarian Prime. And just as often it would find a way to entirely clear your board, add cards to your opponent, and probably cast a pesky secret or two in the process. Are we sure it was just 10 random spells and not twice that amount? 

It probably didn't help that the more recent expansions added larger piles of mostly beneficial spells, thus greatly reducing the potential for the cards like this to backfire against the user. It can be such a nice feeling when it works in your favor and bails you out, and such a devastating one when it steals the game away from you. All in all, too divisive for my tastes. 

If the meta hasn't become overly aggressive, often resulting in a quick demise of Mages if they tried to be too greedy, we might've been looking at a lot more examples of this Yogg-themed menace. Meanwhile, the main villain Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate will remain there to hear our prayers. Or curses.

Avalon - Desert Hare

Desert Hare Card Image

A completely useless card, pack filler, which saw play just twice since its release, and on both occasions, it managed to make Constructed feel miserable: courtesy of Evolve Shaman.

The first time was during the Doom in the Tomb event in Autumn 2019 - during this temporary event, Shaman got back Evolve from Wild and wreaked havoc on ladder thanks to early high rolls together with the then 7 mana Mogu Fleshshaper (nerfed a few months later thanks to Galakrond Shaman, another OP deck).

The second time, as many of you might remember, was shortly after the release of Madness at the Darkmoon Faire. Shaman received some good cards and broke ladder with Evolve on a stick, which allowed multiple triggers over the turns and even more charges with Hoard Pillager. The deck was so fast (Lightning Bloom) that it was hardly able to be beaten, but the nerf to its most important card rightfully slowed it down.

BloodMefist - Mogu Fleshshaper

Mogu Fleshshaper Card Image

Although he has recently fallen out of popularity, I hate what Mogu Fleshshaper has put me through. Evolve can be a cool mechanic at times, but Mogu allowed such obnoxious and stupid high rolls so early on in the game that I cannot abide by it. The worst part is that Mogu in a vacuum would be a fine card, but the utter bullshit that he enables in Evolve strategies makes me despise him. Desert Hare shares a similar problem, but cards with voicelines are also much easier to hate since they provide an extra facet to latch onto (see Clockwork Goblin, Pen Flinger, etc...).

Demonxz95 - Activate the Obelisk

Activate the Obelisk Card Image

This... card. This card. That's all that should really need to be said about Activate the Obelisk and why it sucks to play against it.

Do you want to know how to win a game in Hearthstone? Simple. Reduce your opponent's life to 0 before they do that to you. What does Activate the Obelisk halt players from doing? Reducing the opponent's life. That would be fine, except it does it in the most obnoxious way possible. You can't do anything. You can't attack the opponent. Do you want to actually deal damage to the opponent? Nope, if you do that you just spell your own demise. Basically, when this hits the field, you have to play Hearthstone differently. You can't attack, but instead, you have to build up a board that's big enough to deal significant damage in one swoop and if your board is cleared, then back to square 0 for you. Guess that's when it's time to bring out the OTKs.

Echo - Zephrys the Great

Zephrys the Great Card Image

It is hard to describe how happy I am to finally have Zephrys the Great rotate out of Standard. It's been a minute since he's been a cornerstone of the meta, but the ability to somewhat gimp your deck by playing Highlander to give you the perfect card out of a given scenario just felt bad in a lot of ways. Combine this with the fact that a good amount of decks could just run Zephrys without going full Highlander, and you just get a card that can be put almost anywhere and have it perform great. Zephrys is a cool card, and seeing the A.I. show people lethal they never considered about makes the card fun to play, but playing against it is such a pain that I am glad to have it gone.

FrostyFeet - Whirlkick Master

Whirlkick Master Card Image

Knowing the reasons why I hate Mana Cyclone, it shouldn't come as a big surprise that I also hate Whirlkick Master, which shares a lot of similarities with the aforementioned. Turning a low-value hand into a lot of value, random creation of multiple cards... as an extra offence, the card was threatening to do the same next turn if you had no way to deal with it. At least this minion saw very little play until very late in the rotation cycle so I/we didn't have to suffer from it as long as the Cyclone.

Sule - Tip the Scales

Tip the Scales Card Image

Tip the Scales was a card you forgot existed until Paladin (twice) figured out ways to completely cheat the hefty Cost and get a mess of Murlocs into play way earlier than they had any right to. It was a spell that was designed to be broken, and I'll be glad that it will no longer be around for Paladin to find yet another way to abuse it.